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Court told Gordon Stuckless had system to lure young boys

A court in Toronto is hearing that the man at the centre of the Maple Leaf Gardens sex abuse scandal had a system to lure young boys t
Gordon Stuckless arrives at court in Toronto on Tuesday, April 22 , 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO – A court in Toronto is hearing that the man at the centre of the Maple Leaf Gardens sex abuse scandal had a system to lure young boys that sometimes involved working with an accomplice.

One of Gordon Stuckless’s victims testified today that the former stadium usher acted in tandem with the late John Paul Roby, another convicted child abuser who worked at the arena.

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Crown attorney Kelly Beale says she wants the testimony considered as an aggravating factor in sentencing Stuckless, who pleaded guilty last year to 100 charges related to the sexual abuse of 18 boys decades ago.

He was later found guilty of two charges of gross indecency linked to two of those victims but acquitted on two counts of buggery – an old charge referring to sodomy.

Stuckless had contested the indecency and buggery charges despite admitting in his plea last April that he committed other types of abuse against the same two victims.

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He also fought four other charges but those were withdrawn during trial.

Stuckless pleaded guilty in 1997 to sex assaults on two dozen boys while he was an usher at Maple Leaf Gardens.

In 2013, police announced fresh charges against him in alleged incidents dating back decades.

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